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Jason Whitaker
12,252 PointsUsing jquery .closest() instead of prev().
In order to help myself learn more I've been thinking of alternative ways of solving the problems. In looking at the jquery documentation it seems to me that .closest() could be substituted for .prev(). It doesn't work, but I don't understand why.
2 Answers
Marcus Parsons
15,719 PointsHello again Jason,
It is fantastic that you are looking at new ways of solving problems. That's what you should do because that's innovative. Keep in mind that when looking at the jQuery documentation for different methods, pay close attention to the summary text for each method. With that in mind, closest() can all the way up the DOM tree to grab a reference to an element while prev() only selects a sibling element. Refer to the jQuery documentation when you have questions and all answers shall be revealed.
Jason Whitaker
12,252 PointsI've read the documentation for both a couple of times. Maybe I'm just not understanding something. I tried $(this).closest("span").show();. The way I'm reading the documentation this should work, but it doesn't.
Marcus Parsons
15,719 PointsIt depends on how your document structure is set up. closest() is an ascendant selector so if you're trying to grab a sibling element, it's not going to work. If you're working on this in Workspaces, you can post a snapshot of your code and I can take a look at it. If not, you can post some of your HTML and JavaScript into a Codepen and I'll take a look at it that way.